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Culture

Forthcoming Prisoner Remake: Shocking Plot Twist Revealed

Jesse Walker | 3.4.2009 3:02 PM

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    I knew it!

  2. Episiarch   17 years ago

    Do you still think you can escape, Jesse?

  3. Brian Leonard   17 years ago

    I suppose Rockefeller is The Butler...

  4. Jeff P   17 years ago

    Waitaminute! The Betty Ford Clinic looks like Portmeirion! It's an allegory for the individual's struggle against mandatory 12 Step Programs! Only with giant killer balloons!

  5.   17 years ago

    So was Haig the real #6?

  6. Confused   17 years ago

    I don't get it?

  7. Warren   17 years ago

    Who is #1?

  8. Jesse Walker   17 years ago

    Confused: The Prisoner was a TV series, beloved by many libertarians, about a former secret agent being held in a mysterious island prison called The Village. The Village was run by an unseen figure called Number One and operated on a day to day basis by Number Two. A new person would take over the Number Two role in (almost) every episode, announcing him- or herself at the beginning of the show: "I am the new Number Two!"

  9. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    Warren,

    Patrick McGoohan.

  10. Old Bull Lee   17 years ago

    But what does he want?

  11. Kyle Jordan   17 years ago

    Never seen the show. I do have Number of the Beast though.

    Have to check out The Prisoner.

  12. Warren   17 years ago

    Pro Lib,

    Patrick McGoohan was #6

  13. Warren   17 years ago

    Old Bull Lee,
    He wants information. In For Mation

  14. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    Warren,

    No, Number 6 was John Drake.

  15. robc   17 years ago

    He was delicious.

  16. Sam   17 years ago

    "What do you want?"
    "Information....or peanuts."
    "You'll never get it!"

    (My fav part of the Prisoner is the nearly 3-minute long intro sequence that almost never changes episode to episode. That, and the attempt to establish lava lamps as an ominous motif.)

  17. Old Bull Lee   17 years ago

    By hook or by crook, we will!

    As complex as the show is, you can watch almost any episode (maybe not Fall Out) as a standalone. That awesome intro gives you everything you need to know.

  18. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    I finally watched some Secret Agent episodes. Pretty enjoyable. McGoohan is one of those guys you wish had done more.

  19. David (not that one)   17 years ago

    That theme music was killer too.

  20. Jeff P   17 years ago

    Number 7 was the Old Man's mule on Grizzly Adams.

  21. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    Grizzly Adams was a remake of The Prisoner. Nakoma and Mad Jack alternated being Number 2. Adams, of course, was Number 6.

  22. PR   17 years ago

    I wish they had made another Longshanks movie.

  23. Pro Libertate   17 years ago

    Edward I: The Early Years. Heck, they could've just done one with him without all the fictional stuff from Braveheart.

  24. Don   17 years ago

    I wish the prisons that I have been in were so sophisticately run. Oh well, 6 of one and a half a dozen of the other. Don Meinshausen is out

  25. Randolph Carter   17 years ago

    I was left with the lingering question: What's so scary about a big circus balloon? And why do people let it digest them instead of just batting it away?

  26. Jesse Walker   17 years ago

    Good to hear that you're out, Don.

  27. jgr   17 years ago

    "My fav part of the Prisoner is the nearly 3-minute long intro sequence that almost never changes episode to episode."

    Actually, it changed every episode in which it appeared. Each "New Number 2" did the voice over, often with emphasis on different parts. Same words, different voice.

    Interestingly, the Blue Man Group's tour (as on the DVD) features audio clips from the Prisoner.

  28. jgr   17 years ago

    "We want . . .information . . .information!"

    "It'll cost you 50 cents!"

  29. Franklin Harris   17 years ago

    Pop goes the weasel.

  30. Hugh Akston   17 years ago

    I don't get it?

    The TIME coverstory is referring to a time-honored system for discreetly informing others of your need to use the restroom, and in what capacity.

  31. D.A. Ridgely   17 years ago

    Number 7 was the Old Man's mule on Grizzly Adams.

    Incorrect. No.7 was Jack Daniel's.

  32. kevrob   17 years ago

    I always figure She Who Must Be Obeyed for Number 1, since Horace Rumpole was the best Number 2.

    Kevin

  33. Will Walsh   17 years ago

    If Gerry Ford was the new #2 they Nixon was #1. Which makes sense now that I think about it....

  34. Nemo   17 years ago

    I'm glad to see that Jesse Walker just graduated from clown college.

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